


Sunshower

by Irma7x



Series: We all lose when the family feuds [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Parents, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Parents AU, So much angst, angst angst angst, might add warnings as we go along, they gonn suffer on this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-09-07 12:35:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16854076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irma7x/pseuds/Irma7x
Summary: Part II of Moonbroch, direct sequel to Various Storms and Saints.When Snoke had warned that he would take Lara Hux the moment she knew how to walk, that had not been an empty promise. As Kylo and Hux try to adjust to their life in exile, they find that evil lurks in the atmosphere of their home, directly affecting their daughter's health. With Snoke on their tails and the war between the First Order and the Resistance all around them, the former commanders will have to choose between trying to live in anonimity or stepping up to fight for the life of their child and their freedom.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaand, I'm back with the sequel! Hope it's worth the wait!  
> As always, this was unbeta-ed and I apologize for any spelling mistakes since english is not my first lenguage.

 

> _Sunshower:_ _a meteorological phenomenon in which rain falls while the sun is shining._

 

The sound of quick, rhythmic thudding against a wooden table seems to be magnified in the house's eerie silence, deafening as it echoes impatient fingers. A paranoid gaze falls over the contents lined up at the kitchen counter: brand new boxes of flour and icing for baking, bowls, sizing cups and spoons.

Hux feels his heart stuck at his throat—oversized, beats so loud and consuming that they seem to merge with the sound of his fingers. His anxiety had already made him burst several pink balloons that should've been blown and attached to chairs already, but should he be made to wait in the unknown for a minute longer, his heart would explode exactly like the balloons had.

It’s Lara's first birthday today, but Ren had taken her to town for yet _another_ medical appointment.

She had been ill for several weeks now, with symptoms so strange that none of the doctors that they'd consulted had been able to provide a diagnostic. It wasn't so much that the symptoms were rare _per se_ ; she had been feverish most of the time, and some days she couldn't hold in food, while on other occasions she'd simply display signs of deep fatigue, staring at her parents with such sadness in her eyes, without wanting to move from the bed. They figured none of these conditions were odd, but what was unsettling was that they didn’t add up to a specific disease. Today’s appointed doctor was their last resort.

Being alone in Naboo (with Hux in hiding and Kylo making his way around with mind manipulation) was a hindrance when seeking appropriate help. They had no one to turn to in their exile, no one to guide them on their journey through parenthood, no one to trust. Except, of course, for Kylo’s own instinct.

Despite what Hux ranted about daily, Kylo was the one parent who knew best, thanks to his Force sensitivity. He merely complied with Hux in seeking medical help, to avoid further conflict, but he already knew that his partner’s logic was weak, and no matter how many times Kylo tried to reason with him, it always ended up painfully badly.

Hux, being only the most stubborn man Kylo knew in all the galaxy, would not shut up until he got his way. He tried to convince himself that Kylo’s mystic talk was nothing but crap, and that the reason for a child’s illness was simply to do with their organism, not a higher power. Though so much time had passed that Hux was beginning to go mad when none of Lara’s medical analises came back with a clear answer.

Kylo had had the premonition that Lara’s initial sleep disturbance would only progress to harm her physical self sooner or later. He _knew_ , for he had lived through the same kind of pain, only at an older age. Lara’s disease didn’t have a name because it was designed for her by the same monster who ordered her conception. The same monster that had robbed Ben Solo. The one that had promised to take her as soon as she knew how to walk.

Snoke was cunning that way. A master in how to break his rogue subordinates once and for all.

He had been brewing up a plan to separate them simply for the sake of it, since the very first time he had seen a flicker of curiosity in Kylo’s mind towards his fellow General (if they had learned to work together efficiently, Kylo Ren and General Hux would’ve been invencible, bringing nothing but glory to the First Order. But Snoke never wanted to share success with two insignificant _boys_ ).

Despite having played them against each other for so long, Snoke had been appalled at how their infatuation skyrocketed even when they seemed to hate each other’s guts. Snoke’s plans had backfired against him but it didn’t matter...he had seen how weak his once desired apprentice truly was when faced with _love._

Two meager runts of the litter is what Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux were to him, but they would learn...if Snoke milked their only salvageable traits into a perfectly engineered warrior--raised since birth to obey him, the First Order would finally be victorious and rule the galaxy like it was supposed to do since the beginning.

So the time had come for Snoke to secure his precious invention, making his presence evident in the pathetic domestic life that the two lovers had built for themselves. He toyed with them, finally breaking them up slowly as they feared and fought for the life of their daughter, who was progressively weakening as she grew helpless to the forces twisting her from the inside.

They’d become lost in vicious circle, a paradox. Hux refused to listen to Kylo and Kylo preferred not to give into Hux’s whims, on and off again. Kylo tried to reason with Hux multiple times, to make him see that the aid of some doctor was pointless. And he kept trying to build shields around Lara but Snoke broke through them with ease. Kylo’s failed attempts only served to infuriate Hux even further, so he barked at Kylo about getting off his own ass and find their daughter legitimate, professional help. Kylo resented Hux’s disbelief in him and Hux was desperate with Kylo’s mediocre way of dealing with things.

Once they had promised to communicate more--to be frank and upfront about their feelings. All the progress they had made on that first year at Naboo went to absolute shit as Lara continued to get sicker. Their conversations would quickly evolve into screams and insults--something they were oh, so familiar to. When those arguments would reach their peak and words were naught to express their stress and desperation, it was only the natural course of things, for anger to translate into physical strength instead. But then the ruckus of dishes smashing and thrown chairs breaking, would propel a tantrum out of Lara, adding to their mutual irritation towards each other. They would retreat to themselves and not talk until their anger had dissipated somewhat.  

They had never expected their time at Naboo to be easy, but what they were up against was of a colossal magnitude.

They had even gone without sex for weeks in a row because of how tense things were between them, and _that_ was something that truly saddened them, with sex being such a cherished ritual for them both.

Now, as Hux sits alone in their kitchen, his mind drifts to the ups and downs they had encountered on that year as he waits for his daughter and partner to arrive, praying to the nurturing force that guarded their little house that they'd arrive with a cure for his poor baby…

\---

_One year ago._

It had been _tough_. Like getting up unaided after being hit by the force of a hurricane. There was some kind of relief, nevertheless: their own private paradise, if it could be called that; a life without the burden of the Order at last. But that paradise had soon proven to be an illusion, their bliss opaque with the emotional challenges they struggled with every day.

The first couple of weeks, their bones felt too heavy; they didn't move from the bed at all. The excitement of their long-awaited deflection had been short lived--vanishing the very moment their eyes opened to see another day, the morning after their heartfelt conversation when Kylo confessed about being involuntarily connected to the Scavenger through the Force.

While they were content, they were immensely tired, so they slept for most of the day. They would wake up at the sound of Lara’s rustling and with great effort, Hux would get up to change her while Kylo reluctantly followed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for everyone. Afterwards, they’d return to their bedroom and let the day brush away until it was time to get up again to eat and tend to Lara.

Only Kylo got out of the house for his usual trip to town to stock up on supplies. Without their special cleaning machine, Lara threw diapers away like _crazy,_ making them realize just how huge of an expanse having a child really was. Kylo had even begun fretting that sooner or later the store owners he frequented would start to suspect him. For that reason, he made sure to be quick in his trips, anxiously awaiting to return to bed as well. They both did--always longing for sleep even upon waking.

They were promptly falling down a rabbit hole. It felt too great to remain buried in the safety of their bed, compensating for what seemed like an eternity without a decent sleep. They neglected their days as well as their own bodies—their descent into depression evident in the way they woke up with more scruff on their faces than the day before, and how the bags under their eyes never disappeared, no matter how much they rested.

Without them noticing, two months had passed. Two whole months that they had wasted, rotting away in a bed, with a false sense of security from the war they abandoned but feared, nonetheless, that it might find them again. The only thing keeping them sane was Lara. She was the very rope that fell from the surface of the pit to help them climb back up. And they struggled, but they were hanging on.

As she had proven upon her first breath, she was active and demanding, never fully tranquil until she was coddled by her parents. So having her amongst them in bed--having to interact with her and stimulate her with words in order to help her cognitive skills, kept them going.

They had been warned by Dr. Vigil that she might develop quicker than the average baby due to her force sensitivity and the conditions of her conception, which indeed she had. Merely weeks after her birth she had already been so aware of the world around her, a quality that became even more evident in those first two months. Kylo could swear that it felt as if she knew, somehow, about the turmoil within them. As if her connection to them made her sensitive to their internal agony, and in turn she’d make the effort to help her parents stay _awake_ —in every sense of the word.    

Sometime along the middle of their third month of wallowing, something amazing happened. It was around mid morning and they were tucked in bed as usual, with Lara in between them. They had been pleased to witness how her gurgles and little sounds had started to become more articulated in time.

On that very morning, she appeared to be having a very lively conversation with her stuffed animals that only she could understand; she would shake one before motioning to the other in reply--changing the pitch of her sounds accordingly to each character and laughing to herself in delight. She would turn to her parents as if to ask them _“Are you seeing this?”_ with the brightest smile on her face, to which they cheered in response.  

Suddenly, as if it was the most common thing in the world for her, she pointed at Hux first--face serious as she firmly said, _“pah!”_ and then returned to her imaginary conversation with her toys.

Their eyes widened and their hearts stopped.

“What was that, honey?” Kylo was the first to ask as they had begun to rise from their lying position to sit closely to their daughter.  

She turned to Kylo but said, _“dah”_ instead.

“That's perfect! darling, that's right” Hux cooed, eager for Lara to keep repeating herself until her mumbles transformed into fluent, well formed words so that she could begin telling them every funny tale from her imagination--every thought, every question, every need. She seemed to have sensed the pride beaming from her parents so she kept repeating those sounds over and over again enthusiastically, immensely content at being kissed and nuzzled.

Both of their chests were flooding with a certain kind of warmth that they had never felt before. No matter everything that had happened, it seemed to dawn on them that it was all real. That they were now fathers to a gorgeous little girl who needed them to be strong, or else they would miss all the special moments that would follow on Lara’s life. She was the reason they had escaped the First Order in the first place, and they were no use to her if they kept moping around, hiding under the sheets of an old, creaky bed.

After that, things took a positive change. They dusted themselves off and started again.    

Now they took Lara to play in the living room or even out for walks in the gardens. As months passed, things were beginning to look up for the little family.

Ren had begun exercising again and would usually integrate the baby on his routines--from doing pushups with Lara on his back, to having her on his shoulders while he did squats (all the while, with a laughing girl who was delighted to be moved about by her dad). While Hux had taken up his engineering drawing again to keep himself occupied; his first project would be the little radio device that would hopefully pick up the transmissions sent out on the advancement of the war. Only then he would be confident to go out to the city with Kylo, who had started taking Lara out with him (both to get her to a different environment, as well as to make her try out her clothes before getting them. Another thing they had noticed was that in just 7 months, she kept growing out of them _ridiculously_ fast.)

Kylo had made a habit of taking a detour to a nearby park to play with Lara before returning home. Once he had been so afraid of her--jealous of how easy Hux had adjusted to fatherhood. But his confidence grew once he started spending more time with her alone. Besides, her love for him was loud and clear in her aura. Pure, _unconditional_ love.     

There was one time when he had been so enthralled by rocking his baby in the air and making engine noises (like they would do when playing _spaceship)_ , sitting on a park bench, that he hadn’t noticed the woman that had approached him.

“Your baby is beautiful” she had coquettishly said, extending her hand in greeting. “I’m Miri”

He had gaped at her, thrown out of his element by having a beautiful woman strike a conversation with him. He had noticed her around before, always working out--either running laps around the park or doing yoga. She was svelte, yet curvaceous in her tight exercise clothes, and she had her long hair pulled up in a ponytail. What had Kylo stumbling with his words was the intense waves of flirtation and interest that she was unconsciously projecting.

“Thank you. I’m uh--” _How would he introduce himself!? Not Kylo, surely?_ “-B-Ben... _Hux_ ” That last bit, he had said in auto-pilot. As if to establish himself as taken, although she wouldn’t have gotten the hint just by that.

“I’ve seen you around here a lot. Today, I thought, _why not_? Might as well take a shot and talk to the handsome stranger with the baby”

He had blushed involuntarily by having been called handsome. Although he had always known he was attracted to men, he had never had anyone from any gender at all flirt with him before. It had given him a very needed confidence boost after having spent so long cooped up at the cottage.   

“Yeah, I bring her here for a change of scenery. She likes playing in the open air.”

“What’s her name?”

“Lara”

“How beautiful! she’s so beautiful--I mean, how could she not be?”

 _If only Hux was here to see this,_ Kylo thought. _He would be laughing his ass off._ _Or marking his territory. I certainly wouldn’t mind that..._

“Thank you. What do you say, honey?” he had cooed to Lara, but apparently someone hadn’t been that happy to share the attention of her dad--nor about the woman’s intentions with him. She had only grumbled, turning her head the other way. “She’s a bit shy”

“You’re so sweet with her” Miri had tried to get closer, but Lara resisted. “She looks so much like you! She must get her green eyes from her mother, I bet...Where is she, by the way?”

“Yeah, she does. _He’s_ at home”

“ _Oh”_ she hadn’t expected _that_. “Well. I better be going now. Hope to see you around some other time” she obliged herself to add, for her interest had fallen quicker than an ancient X-Wing in battle.

It had been a bizarre encounter for Kylo and Hux had had the time of his life hearing all about it, back at the house.

“I had the strangest thing happen to me today” Kylo had begun recounting during lunch.

“What happened?”

“This lady at the park approached me today, but she was _flirting_ with me. It was so weird”

Hux cracked up. “Was she?”

“Yeah, it was practically pouring out of her, I could feel it. It was so strange, Hux”

“She probably saw your ears and went weak at the knees”

“I’m serious!”

“I’m serious too. Your ears are your most attractive feature” Hux choked out, face scrunched up as he snickered.

“Ha ha, go fuck yourself”

“Well. While I entirely understand why she would flirt, she didn’t withstand a chance. You’re _mine_.”  

Hearing that coming out of Hux’s mouth got Kylo all flustered--heart pumping erratically while all the blood in his body travelled to south. Hux had never been openly affectionate. He was possessive in his own way, and it drove Kylo mad with want whenever Hux would let comments like that slip.

_“You’re mine”_

Hux had repeated, later on that day when they had put Lara to nap and eagerly made their way to the bedroom.

Like a starved man, Hux had attacked every inch of Kylo’s neck with kisses and bites as he laid on top of him--the burn of his bushy beard, entirely _divine_ to Kylo, who had been reduced to a mess of wanton moans by Hux’s touch.

“Ugh, _Hux_...never shave this off, _please_ ” Kylo groaned, caressing the ginger hairs that decorated Hux’s chin and jaw. While Kylo had shaved his own scruff off and trimmed the tips of his hair before it got any longer, Hux had opted for the contrary. He looked so different...so carefree and unkept, where he used to go for a pristine, clean-shaven and gelled-back look before. It made him so unbearably attractive, so striking and masculine.

“ _Mmm,_ do you like this?” he hotly whispered as he kept rubbing his face against Kylo, in tune with the motion of his undulating hips against Kylo’s clothed erection.

“Fuck yeah…” He whined as he had forcefully pushed Hux’s boxer-shorts and shirt off of him, leaving him completely bare as they kept kissing. Kylo took advantage of that move by grabbing a handful of Hux’s ass to sensually knead those perfectly round globes, pressing Hux’s groin more insistently against him to seek out more friction on his dick.

Hux started a path of messy kisses from Kylo’s neck, down to the hollow of his mole-dotted throat and collarbones, stopping to bite at each of his broad pecs. He aimed to leave angry-red hickeys all over that smooth skin as he taunted him, “Did you like _her_ , throwing herself at you, hmm?”

Kylo couldn’t even answer--muted by the wet feeling of Hux sucking his nipples. “Y- _yeah_ ”

“Did you? did you like the attention?” Hux started trailing lower--prickly beard and hot puffs of breath igniting a fire all along Kylo’s abdomen and navel, places where Hux had chosen to stop at to thoroughly worship with his tongue.  

“Mhmm…” Kylo hummed, grabbing a fistful of soft, ginger locks, beautifully lose from a lack of the usual gel. So much easier to gather and _pull_. “Not as much as I like the sight of you in between my legs”   

“I’m sure she imagined herself in my place. How about that?” Kylo’s heavy erection bounced up when it was freed from his shorts. “Oooh, so _gorgeous,_ ” Hux murmured, taking it in his hand and loving how the weight of that thick length felt. “All filled up _for me_ ”

 _“Yes”_ Kylo groaned, “Only for you.” He had tried angling his hips up to meet Hux’s mouth but was ignored. Hux instead rubbed the expanse of Kylo’s inner thighs with his beard--exploiting this newfound thing that his partner enjoyed. “Fuck, that feels _so good_ , Hux...”

“Does it…? Wouldn’t it feel nicer with that nice lady here, sucking on your cock, instead of me?” And Kylo melted into the bed at the feeling of Hux’s tongue lightly licking his head while fisting the base of his dick.

“No, fuck no, _only you_... _please_ ” He had desperately tried to guide Hux further in by the hair, and was rewarded with a long, thorough suck, with Hux hollowing out his cheeks--releasing Kylo with a loud and obscene, popping sound.

“Who do you belong to?” Hux had darkly growled as he stroked Kylo with his tightened fist.

“ _You_ , baby, _only you_ …Hux, _please_...” He was going to cum if Hux kept torturing him like that. What had him so worked up was having all of Hux’s attention to himself--basking in the intense waves of lust, possessiveness and craving radiating from him--all centered on Kylo. It left him feeling like a spiraling TIE-fighter, falling into the vast space.  

“Who does _this big cock_ belong to?” Hux demanded as he incremented the strength of his stroking.

“it’s _yours_ , Hux, all yours!”

“Mhhmm, damn right it is” Hux gobbled the rest of it down, deep-throating Kylo, up and down, again and again...All of Kylo’s nerves were alight with fire and he felt a puddle of warmth gathering low in his belly. He couldn’t help but take hold of Hux’s hair and force him down until his nose was practically nuzzled against Kylo’s pubic hair as he kept swallowing.

_“Hux, Hux, Hux, Hux…fffuck, Hux, I’m gonna cum!”_

“Not yet! not yet, my darling boy...” Kylo let out a long, guttural whine in desperation. He was right there at the cliff, and yet...Hux had pulled him out of his mouth to harshly bite at the meaty flesh of his inner thighs, while his palms massaged the planes of Kylo’s hard abs to calm him down.

“Please, Hux... _please_ ” he had almost screamed the last part if it wasn’t for the awareness of a sleeping Lara next door.

“Shh...or you’ll wake the baby” Hux devilishly grinned as he returned to his ministrations--a wet heat enveloping Kylo’s dick so, _so_ heavenly. “How badly do you want to cum?”

“ _So, so, bad_ , baby, I want to come in your mouth, please!”

“Are you going to be thinking of her when you cum?”

“No, Hux, only you, baby, only you, I want it so bad, _please_ …” He babbled and begged over and over again at the mouth-watering sensation of Hux’s tongue on him. Helpless, Kylo went to grab one of Hux’s hands while he kept sucking him, neck arched when a very distinct, overwhelming tingling in his groin started pulsing and spreading all over his body in delicious waves. He was right there...so he had squeezed Hux’s hand in an attempt to anchor himself. “FUCK! Hux!”

Without wanting to stop blowing him, Hux lovingly stroked his thumb against Kylo’s nuckles, granting him permission, sending in thought, _“Cum for me, my boy”_ as he increased the speed of his mouth without a care in the world for his sore jaw.

That, plus the vibration of Hux’s loud groan against Kylo’s cock propelled him out into a mind-shattering orgasm, as thrilling as that first instance when engaging the hyperdrive of a ship.

Hux had swallowed everything up, gulping down greedily as he admired how precious Kylo looked: showered in an innocent kind of relief at having been pleasured and donned and _loved_ so sweetly. All muscle and power, and yet so boyish, laying there completely satisfied, still holding onto his lover’s hand like a lifeline as his chest rose and fell with effort.

When Hux pulled off from Kylo’s dick, he was still connected to him through a thin thread of cum, which he obscenely licked into his mouth, making a show of savouring it. Afterwards, Hux had climbed his way back up to Kylo, who immediately attacked his lips, wanting to taste himself on him.  

And how the scratch of that beard did things to him...Kylo had firmly wrapped his arms around Hux to trap him right in as Hux, once again, nuzzled his face into the crook of Kylo’s neck.

“So that’s a deal. You’re never shaving this off again”

Hux had faintly laughed, exhausted but tremendously happy; he would never admit out loud how much he enjoyed spoiling Kylo from time to time. Made him feel truly content, even if he hadn’t been taken care of yet. But Kylo was an attentive lover, so he had returned the favor shortly after they had cuddled for a while. He had had Hux’s legs tightly wrapped around his head like vices as Kylo enthusiastically blew him.

After that one time, the two had been at it like animals; fucking in every corner of the house, at any hour of the day. That’s when they knew that they had passed their recovery with flying colors: when their sex drive had been restored to normalcy, at last.

Once, they did it at the sofa: Kylo gripping the back of it so hard that his knuckles had gone white, since Hux been teasing him for an eternity before he gave him the blowjob of his life. The minute Hux had sank himself into that cock though, Kylo had been too far gone to last long.    

They did it quite frequently at the kitchen; with Hux holding on to that counter for dear life as Kylo rimmed him like a hungry dog, opening him up to take his length. Or, the other way around, given the occasion.

There was one time that they had woken up _so horny,_ that it had been nearly impossible to handle the day’s chores. That morning, they had found their erections naturally rubbing against one another upon waking. They had tried to get off with sleepy kisses and languid dry humping, but Lara’s cries had interrupted them _just_ when they had found a perfect pace. The promise of continuing where they had left off had had them antsy all day, so they made sure to tire Lara out quickly to escape to the bed as soon as she fell asleep. They had been so eager--much too desperate to withstand proper foreplay--so they ended up with Hux on top of Kylo in a 69 position, to pleasure each other simultaneously. They had finished quite quickly, to their dismay. But it allowed them more recovery time before round two.

Only one issued remained.

Kylo, as requested, had brought Hux all the parts that he needed to start tinkering with the radio he had designed. It took him a couple of tries, but he prided himself the moment it began functioning flawlessly.

Every morning, Hux would sit at the kitchen table, cup of caf in hand, waiting.

 _“Ren”_ Hux almost didn’t hear the transmission one time, with Kylo and Lara’s loud giggles in the background.

At 8 months, Hux had learned that Phasma was now in charge (which, Hux thought, she actually deserved. She was the most capable, ruthless soldier he had ever met). They were still looking for them, since they never found their bodies upon Starkiller’s destruction.

_“REN!”_

“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up now, _damnit”_

_“This is FN-9792. Still on the lookout for Hux and Ren’s bodies, no signs of them yet. Over.”_

He exhaled a sigh mixed with relief and unsease at the same time. He had a nagging feeling at the back of his head that Phasma knew that they were hiding, even when the results of their search proved negative.

Two months later though, it seemed that their luck had changed.

“Ren! listen to this”

Kylo had left Lara in the playden as he reached closer to Hux in his usual place at the table. They listened to an unknown (yet, a little bit familiar? they couldn’t point it out due to the distortion of the transmission) female voice speak to Phasma.

_“It’s been 10 standard months, General. There hasn’t been a trace of them anywhere--the troops have covered the majority of the galaxy by now--it’s the fastest, most efficient raid we’ve done. Still, no trace. They might have been consumed when Starkiller blew up. We need to reevaluate our strategy--focus all forces on the Resistance. It’s said Skywalker might be back with them but we haven’t received confirmation.”_

_“You’re right. Make a public announcement declaring their deaths. We mustn't let the Resistance slip through our fingers, it’s time to move. IMMEDIATELY.”_

_“Understood, General Phasma.”_

It was like an unbearable weight had been lifted off their shoulders.

Later that same evening, upon finishing their dinner, another announcement came through.

_“The First Order declares today that former General Armitage Hux and commander Kylo Ren are dead. I repeat. Armitage Hux and Kylo Ren are dead.”_

They couldn't find words to name that overwhelming feeling dancing inside their chests at the news. They went about the remaining affairs of the day in a haze until nighttime came. Still in that wonderful high, now made tangible with an unhurried, lengthy, love-making session as a celebration; each lying on their sides as Kylo gently pounded into Hux--mouths locked in tender kisses and sighs, hands cradling the sides of their faces as they timidly smiled in ease.

“It’s done” Kylo had whispered, breath tickling Hux’s face, who quietly laughed.

“It’s done! It’s done, my love, it’s done, we’re dead” Hux kept murmuring. They remained tangled in a cozy embrace as they continued to move until they both came together with hushed, relieved moans; Kylo emptying himself inside of Hux, as their kisses became lazy and imprecise--more hot breaths exchanged, than anything.

They were too comfortable to move, so they fell asleep in each other’s arms in a loving hug, all through the night, until morning arrived to greet them to another day filled with possibilities now that they had freed themselves of one less worry.    

They had decided to wait for the news to spread until they went out together as a family for the first time, which happened two weeks later at Kylo’s proposition of going to the park he frequented. That day, it had been sunny but chilly, so they had all gone out dressed in snug clothing; Lara with a yellow sundress and a lavender cardigan and beanie; Hux in a blue, knitted sweater, and Kylo dressed in all black as usual.

“Easy there, _son of darkness_ , wouldn’t want to go unnoticed, would you?”  

“Shut up, Hux. You look like an old man in that thing”

“I am an old man”

They had playfully bickered all day as they strolled through the park, both of them alternating their hold on Lara (which was paradise to her--the thing she had come to love most in the universe was the warmth of her father’s arms, equally). They had even ran into Miri, who perplexedly watched them interact from afar, and stood petrified when Hux made a show of dramatically kissing Kylo specifically for her discomfort.

 _“Eye’s preem, daddy!”_ Lara had cheerfully babbled while tugging at her father’s sweaters. As usual, when Kylo would take her to the park they would often stop by a quaint _ice cream_ shop that sold treats that somehow changed color--Lara’s favorite being the one that went from bright green to orange and then purple.    

“Let’s ask your papa--Hux, do you want to try one? she really likes the ice cream there”

_“Eye’s preem, papa, pleese!? Papa!”_

_How could he say no to those resplandescent green eyes?_ “With what sort of monstrosity have you been spoiling our daughter with!? Hux jested--a good-hearted defeat by having been won by the adorable look of his child. “They don’t happen to have a _Tarine_ flavored one, do they?”

“Wow. That has to be the lamest thing I’ve ever heard”

“Shut up!” He gave Ren a playful shove before faking reluctancy when following them to the store. Although he was in fact appalled by the looks of the desserts: endless rows of pastel and neon-colored pastries and ice-cream--maker knows what sort of ingredients they had. His eyes nearly fell from its orbits when he saw the the big scoop of ice-cream that the blue-skinned, Twi’lek man had served Lara.

“Relax, they’re all made from local produce” Kylo snickered at Hux’s scandalized face.

“That doesn’t mean they’re not a sugar fest, you moron! She’s just started teething and you’re going to give her cavities already!”

“She’s strong with the force, she won’t get cavities” Kylo had been joking, of course, but he had said so with a fully serious tone to further poke fun at Hux. _Oh, his reaction had been priceless--he looked funnier than a stormtrooper with windshields on its helmet,_ or so Kylo thought.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Relax, Hux, children eat sugar, it’s no big deal to have it once in a while. It’s not like she only eats junk at home, we do our jobs right”

 _We do, don’t we?_ It suddenly struck Hux, that for two First Order commanders who had never had close contact with babies and knew absolutely nothing as to how to raise one, they were doing just fine. They were a great team--as good tacticians, they acted on whatever curve Lara sent them; with every need that arose, they managed to adapt and provide. With lots of love, always. They aimed to make sure that Lara _never_ had an inkling of doubt of their love for her, considering what their own childhoods had been like.

So enthralled were they on their conversation, that they hadn’t noticed how the shop owner was intently staring at them...as if trying to recall where he had seen them before. He recognized the black-haired man with the girl, sure, but the redhead…

“Excuse me, i’m sorry if this is improper, but, do I know you, mister?” The old Twi’lek squinted his eyes, trying to put a name to a face.

Hux tensed immediately. _Oh no, he recognized me._ “Me? I don’t think so” he tried to act cold and distant but maybe that had been a wrong choice. _General Hux always appeared cold and distant in every First Order propaganda._

“I’m sorry, you seem _so_ familiar...maybe I’ve seen you around these parts?”

“No, I don’t think so, and I must ask you to stop this, my partner and I are just visiting”

Hux had hoped that the vendor couldn’t see the beads of cold sweat that were trailing from his forehead nor hear the overwrought beats of is heart.

“Ah, so that explains the accent! It sounds almost like older Nabooian...Coruscanti, even…” As soon as the vendor started name-dropping planets of the old Empire, he started to hyperventilate, and all sound was fuzzied by the ringing in his ears.

Before matters escalated, Kylo quickly stepped in with an outstretched palm, making sure that there weren’t other people at the shop to witness his powers, “You will forget this conversation!”

Bewildered, The Twi’lek turned to Kylo, “Excuse me?”

“You will _forget_ this conversation” he repeated with conviction.

“Are you--a force user!? Wait! Are you--I know you! You’re-you’re--”

“ _You_ _will forget_ this conversation!” Passion dripped from Kylo’s words as he tried with all his might to trick the clerk before he realized that it was none other than _Ben Solo_ , back from the grave.

To them, a second felt like a century until the he finally fell into a trance, _“I will forget this conversation”_

“You will forget our faces!”

_“I will forget your faces”_

“Let’s get out of here, Ren!”

They had ran as far away from the ice cream shop as possible, but Kylo hadn’t wanted to let a beautiful day go to waste.

“Wait! Hux...it’s so nice here outside, we never go out together. Let’s just find a bench to sit at so that Lara can eat her ice cream. We’re safe now, it’s alright”

“Are you crazy!? Absolutely not!”

“Please”

“Just until Lara finishes with that thing”

They had sat in a bench in one of the farthest, most secluded areas of the park, but given the time of day, it was still pretty crowded and Hux couldn’t help but feel observed. He felt thousands of eyes on him--pinned down by gazes hiding in bushes and trees, felt that he could even read people’s minds, whispering, _“The Starkiller, General Hux!”_ repeatedly. _"General Hux, General Hux, General Hux, it’s him, it’s him! The Starkiller, General Hux”_ Over and over again until the sound accumulated and transformed into a shrill, buzzing noise that reverberated in his brain.

He regulated his breathing as he tried to focus on his family instead, but when he looked around the area, he found a couple passing by who were staring right at them--right at _Hux_ \--in the same way that the Twi’lek had. A dizzying sensation passed over him--with blurry eyes and nausea--when he noticed that the woman had inched closer to her companion to say something while pointing over to him.

“Ren…”

“Hmm?” he mindlessly replied as he cleaned the corners of Lara’s mouth with a tissue.

“REN”

“What’s the matter?”

“Let’s get out of here…”

“But--”

“I SAID, let’s go! _now!”_

A single look at Hux’s eyes told Kylo everything, and he berated himself for having been so distracted that he hadn’t paid mind to Hux’s palpable change in his aura; adrenaline had been pouring out of him in tons--why couldn’t he have been more attentive?

“Alright”

Back at the house, Hux collapsed. He had been feeling deprived of air until the moment he stepped foot in their home--chest desperately widening in an effort to take as much as air it could at once. H

He broke down--like he never had before--in front of Kylo.

“I’m never going out again! You hear me!?”

Silently, Kylo had knelt at his side to soothe his back, before guiding him back to their bed, where Hux kept repeating the same mantra while sobbing and hiccuping, _“Never again, I won’t do it. They’ll find me…”_

Kylo never left his side--gently hushed him to sleep once he had calmed. Even Lara had accommodated herself close to Hux’s head so she could brush his hair.

Not a word on the matter had been said after that. Hux had been too ashamed of being openly vulnerable in front of them, even when Kylo didn’t mind it--welcomed it, in fact, with open arms. He was always so strong, always the clear-headed one; Kylo wanted him to know that it was okay to unwind, it's what he was there for. To catch him when he fell and love him until he healed.  

Their routine continued as it was before, but with a somber cloud looming above them. Inquietude and angst slipped through the once impenetrable walls of the cottage. They constantly felt anxious for no reason, found off-putting the tiniest of details. Hux had even shaved his beard and trimmed his hair again because he felt a compulsive need to take control of things, even over the most insignificant ones.

That had been the beginning of their downfall.

After their failed attempt of a family outing, Lara began to get sick.

It started with rough nights of interrupted sleep by nightmares, then to wake up with a fever.

She wouldn't be able to eat for weaks; her sensitive stomach throwing up whatever it was that they gave her, even the lighter meals.

On the other end of the spectrum, she would sleep all day and no divine power would wake her.

Slowly, the brightness of their child’s energy had dimmed. A house that was once full of laughter and joy became hollow. And just as they had begun, they found themselves demolished once again by the vengeful and malevolent puppet master that had always kept a secured hold on their strings.

\---

_Present day._

Hux halts and jumps out of his seat immediately, pulled from his memories at the sound of a motor engine at their doorstep. He runs to open the door but trips back when Kylo beats him to it.

“My darling girl, what happened!?” he sadly coos when he's greeted by the sight of his daughter slouching miserably against Kylo's neck. Hux gently cradles her tiny head between his palms and kisses her all over the face before separating.

“Papa” she begs, and without further ado she's exchanged from Kylo's arms into Hux's but not without a departing kiss at her temple from Kylo, who now sulks around around the house in grumpy circles.

“What happened?” Hux demands coldly, in fear of hearing the worst as well as general irritation towards Kylo. He tries to calm himself by nuzzling Lara’s freshly-smelling curls, which had been styled with a flower-shaped pin, especially for her birthday.

Kylo just grumbles something incoherent--frown threatening to split his tense skull in two and eyes clouded with annoyance as he steps past Hux to grip the kitchen counter.

“Everything’s wrong, Hux, for fuck’s sake. How many times have I told you that this is all a WASTE OF TIME!?”

“A _waste!_ ” _Oh this is just priceless,_ Hux thinks. He had spent the whole day with tachycardia, all for Kylo to respond with such a petulant tone. _Unbelievable_.

“A WASTE!?” _And_... _there_ it is. Hux’s ire didn't need that much to be poured out, all it had taken was a final look at Kylo’s conformed pout and he exploded.

“I'll tell you what’s a waste!” And he stomps forward to Kylo’s hunched form at the kitchen counter, whipping him around by the collar of his black sweater to face him--fist shaking with anger as he shouts, “YOUparading around the house all day, doing nothing! that’s a waste! While I’ve been worrying my ass off, trying to find help when you know damn well I cannot go out! What ON EARTH is wrong with you!! Are you purposely letting our daughter DIE!?”

Kylo had felt like a bomb waiting to detonate, all day, and Hux is pushing all the right buttons to do so. He violently grabs the fist that was pulling at his collar and spits back.

“And that is awfully convenient, isn’t it, Hux!? Ordering me around under that excuse! Still afraid of Resistance members coming to get you!? How DARE you say that!? I’ve done nothing but keep you both safe and you KNOW IT! I’m the one who's been taking her out to her appointments, the one getting medicine and food!”

As he speaks, his volume only increases and he feels the _need_ to let his anger out. Kylo raises his hand on an impulse as if to slap Hux’s arrogance from his face, but the redhead is quicker.

“GET your FUCKING hands off me!” he yells as he quickly grabs Kylo by the forearm, pushing him hard enough to harshly stomp against the kitchen wall.

Kylo extends his palm to retaliate with the Force, but stops midway when he sees just how the brutality of their argument disrupts Lara--who howls and whimpers in anguish, shying from their conniption by tucking her head against Hux’s neck and tightening her grip around him.

“Shit!” Kylo mumbles, finally registring what they had just done.

Hux also stands back, shushing Lara in a poor attempt of an apology.

When Kylo looks back at the scene in front of him he wishes the ground would swallow him up. He hates that Lara has bear witnessed of so many outbursts like those over the past weeks. He fears that one day he will push his family away, history repeating itself all over again.

In the back of his mind, a faint entity cackles in morbid amusement.

Kylo approaches them cautiously once Lara has calmed down (although tears still stream down her rosy cheeks). She looks up at Kylo with fear and rapidly hides away from him behind Hux’s neck. To say Kylo feels defeated is an understatement.   

“Hux…” he quietly pleads, but his heart sinks to his stomach when Hux just regards him with eyes as cold as the chilling tundra of the planet Hoth, and walks past him to put Lara to sleep in their room.

Hux tucks himself and Lara inside their bed as he tightly cradles her to his chest. How he wishes he could just cure her by the strength of his hold alone.

Once Lara has drifted off, Hux returns to the kitchen where he finds Kylo going through the stacks of ingredients at the kitchen, looking lost as ever--as if it hadn't been _his_ idea to get all of that stuff to bake their daughter a birthday cake. It's a charming sight if he's honest with himself...but that doesn't mean he's less mad.

“What happened?”

Kylo stops fumbling around and sighs before answering, eyes cast down in cowardice.

 _Good_ , Hux thinks. Let him wallow in his own shame.

“The doctor prescribed a bunch of medicine she's too young to take. He couldn't even admit that he didn’t know what he was doing. He kept avoiding my questions and justifying my worry on me being a new parent.”

Kylo gripped the kitchen counter so hard his knuckles were turning white, and the contents lined up before him started shaking, as he remembered the doctor’s condescending demeanor towards Lara.  

The appointment had been doomed from the start, with Lara perturbed from the moment she stepped into the consulting room--restless in Kylo’s arms and eyes watery for reasons other than her distaste for doctors in general. All throughout her examination, Lara’s gaze never left her father’s, begging for the torture to be over--queasy at the feeling of foreign hands on her.

They flew from the clinic with Kylo carrying her in his arms like the delicate treasure that she really was, trying to amend for all the careless palping that his poor girl had to suffer through. He rewarded her composure with an ice cream from that shop she liked, as well as a lengthy shower of kisses.

But even all of Kylo’s snuggling was not enough to alleviate her pain. She simply settled herself against her father’s warm chest and basked in what comfort she could get in her condition while weakly eating her treat. _This isn’t fair,_ Kylo thought on their way back home, _she's innocent._

“Hux…” with that he finally turns, and Hux is surprised to see Kylo’s red-rimmed eyes and swollen face. He looks _miserable_. “That was our last hope...I'm begging you to _believe_ me...this is something else.”

Deep within Hux’s gut, he knew that Kylo was right, but he couldn't let the irrational part of him give in. He wanted to be confident with the possibility that if they just seeked help in the right place, Lara could be all right. But as Kylo had said, that had been the last doctor that they had managed to track down, indeed, and he never even looked trustworthy to begin with.   

“I know. I’m sorry,” _For everything_ , he means to say, but refrains. Kylo will hear him anyway. “I’m just not sure of what else to do” _I feel like we're being slowly choked to death and I don't know how to fight this back with you._

They meet halfway in a tender embrace, hoping that their hold will traduce the apology they’re too proud to express with words.  

They had vowed, long ago, that they would remain a team through better or worse. And they both might feel at odds, and they might be afraid and helpless, and they might quarrell and yell and bite, but they were a unit. And so as a unit, they would stand tall and keep fighting.

As if sensing that her stubborn fathers had finally made up, Lara’s loud babbles call them through the hallway, so Hux goes to pick her up and bring her back with them, settling her inside the playden at their living room.

When Hux is reassured that she's fine, he goes to the kitchen again to help Kylo with the cake. They forget about the frail subject at hand for a while, letting the mundane matters of their little improvised, birthday “party” for Lara occupy their thoughts instead. They work at ease at the kitchen; mixing ingredients and lightly goofing around as they try to figure out together the logistics of baking a pink cake. It dawned on them, the domesticity of the situation, and it spoke volumes of how resilient their bond really was.

“Why don’t you go handle those balloons you ruined and let me handle this here!” Kylo was equal parts annoyed and entertained by Hux’s bullying at seeing his nule cooking skills.   

Once the preparations had been set and the evening had arrived, they both gather Lara in arms and take her to the dining space while singing _happy birthday_ to her. They present her with a 3 layered-cake (a cake that was made with plenty of effort and way too big for the three of them) lit with a single, sparkly candle, as well as a room filled with pink balloons all around.

“ _Happy birthday, dear Lara!_ ” they chant in unison, “ _happy birthday to you!”_

If one could only see them... singing out of tune and bouncing up their little girl in their arms, no one would’ve ever guessed that those two had been the former commanders of the First Order.

Lara happily claps and laughs in utmost fascination at the marvelous scene in front of her--eyes huge with awe at never having seen such beautiful things in her home. She is attacked with kisses and snuggles on her tummy by her two dads, which makes her giggle uncontrollably as she’s seated at the table next to her cake.

“Alright, darling, just how we practiced!” Hux exclaims, to which Lara replies with an excited, _“yep!”_

She purses her lips but somehow forgets how to blow her candle, getting jittery with frustration. Ren decides to give her a tiny _push,_ just as he had done when she had learned how to walk when she had turned 11 months old. Just a slight prompt in order for her to gain control over the Force and do the rest by herself.

“Okay, honey, you got this” he murmurs right next to her ear while gently soothing her shoulders in encouragement. “Make a wish and concentrate on _that_ candle” He puts his forehead against hers, tuning his energy alongside hers and _feeling_ the engines of her mind twirling around and focusing on her goal, growing stronger with the aid of her father.

With a swift exhale, the light of the candle extinguishes, _finally!_ , and she joyously laughs in triumph and blushes at the cheers and claps of her dads.

“Well done, my darling! that was brilliant!”

“There you go, honey!” Kylo couldn’t have felt prouder. Lara is truly a splendid child and he only hopes that unlike himself, she learns to yield her powers responsibly in the future. He would never hide or numb down her abilities--that had been the exact reason why he had fallen. He figured that if he accompanied her on every step of her development, if he was there to answer any questions and teach her from the very beginning, maybe she would lead a healthier life as a force-user. At least, that’s the treatment that he would’ve liked to have had as a boy, instead of having been sent away to his uncle when the going got tough.

Despite the rough start, the evening had been most pleasant and fun. The cake had actually turned okay, and they remained the rest of the evening sitting at the dining table conversing, with Lara as the center of attention (as she loved to be.) They had even brought some of her stuffed toys to the table to play silly games and tell fantastic stories, straight from the couple’s imagination.

Lara was, without a doubt, the most treasured gift in their lives; they had the chance to relieve their own childhood through her.

It was well into the night and they were still up celebrating (something they wouldn’t normally allow, but they took a break from being responsible parents this once), when something unnamable started creeping into the cheery ambient.

Slowly.

Something-- _someone_ approaching.

Lara feels it first--turning around constantly to look at the door and mumble an unclear word. Kylo notices this and looks into his own senses--chastises himself for only paying attention to this shift after Lara had.

It’s the faint sound of a familiar engine landing far from the house. Kylo would have recognized the chirps of that piece of junk on a mile’s radius.

The distinct aura of a force-user approaching taints the previously festive mood, and Kylo and Lara’s change in demeanor is so evident and sudden that even Hux tenses, intently fixing his gaze on Kylo to discern the coming threat just by the intensity of those brown eyes.

“Ren? What’s wrong?” Hux flinches at the sound of banging against their door before Kylo can even answer him.

“Stay with Lara”

“Ren!?”

“Shh...It’s alright, just stay with Lara”

Hux doesn’t like that tone one bit. His heart is rocketing against his chest, skin cold and clammy as anxiety eats him up for the second time that day.  

Kylo cautiously opens the door but does not budge at the sight that greets him. Only then does he understand that when Lara had mumbled _“Whey, whey, whey!”_ , she had meant: _Rey._  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So glad to finally have this out! I wanted to have it before the year ended but oh well, life has been hectic :(  
> hope it's worth the wait. There are a couple of warnings at the end's notes.

“Ren, what's going on!? Hux demands--Lara tightly clutched in his arms as he watches Kylo’s still figure at their door--the cool wind freezing up their house, worsening Hux’s nervous shivering.

“It's alright, I got this. Wait for me at our room”

 _“Ren!_ ”

“Go on!”

_“Whey!”_

Everyone at the cottage stands frozen at the sound of Lara’s exclaim. It wasn’t fearful, nor accusing, but merry. Like a child greeting a cherished acquaintance after a long journey.

_“Whey, whey!”_

That's when Hux steps forward, ever so cautiously, to see the damned Scavenger standing right outside their doorstep. _How dare she come here, after all this time, on our daughter’s kriffing birthday of all days. Come to ruin everything--_

“‘-- _Careful,_ Hux” Rey warns as she reads Hux’s train of thought. “I have every right to arrest you, but that’s not what I’m here for right now.”

Rey’s gaze curiously trails to Lara--who’s looking at her with inquisitive eyes--and tries to will her face against cracking up with a smile in front of the men. Despite her awful parents, the child is lovely, radiating such gleeful energy, even in sickness.

Back in Jakku, if she recalls correctly, she had only seen a baby once or twice. That junkyard was a land of fiends and brutes; a desert where nothing that wasn’t debts or dust ever grew. The sight of a baby seemed like a mirage: a baby in a makeshift sling made of gauze, carried in a lone woman’s arms. It filled Rey with amazement to see Lara in the flesh, born in a place that, just like Jakku, seemed illogical. She had seen her before in the glimpses that her and Ren’s visions allowed, but _now_ \--the girl looked even more beautiful than she remembered.

“Then what are you here for?” Hux’s frosty tone pulls Rey from her thoughts and she hardens at the gesture of the ex-general trying to cover the baby from her.

 _As if I were a threat.._.“Your _boyfriend”_ Rey mocks before facing Kylo directly, “we need to talk.”

“Hux. I’m telling you it’s fine. Take her to our room”

Hux fixes him with a deadly glare before acquiescing. When he turns his back to Rey, two big eyes peek from behind her father’s neck, carefully observing the scene. Lara waves her tiny hand in goodbye, which finally breaks Rey’s stoic facade into faint giggles.

“What do you want?” Bleakness showers her once again at Kylo’s tone.

“Will you at least let me in? it’s freezing in here!”

Knowing it was the beginning of winter in Naboo, Rey had worn her grey hooded-cape, but she had never expected the wind to be so aggressive at that hour of the night, specially with Kylo deliberately stalling before letting her in--wanting to make her pay for barging in on their home.  

“You baked a cake?” Rey quickly rubs her palms in an attempt to get warm, basking in the the whiff of recently baked treats and the toasty ambient once she’s inside.  

“Just--whatever it is that you’re about to say, just  _say it._ ”

Rey pauses for a moment, meditating on the correct delivery to persuade Kylo. “We’re moving to Crait”, she solemnly begins. “We’re moving to an old Rebel base in Crait--it’s our last chance. The First Order has terminated what few resources we had and now we’re on the run, with only a few of us remaining. Master Luke is--well...Master Luke refuses to fight. I haven’t been able to convince him, but we need him now more than ever--”

“--If that old man refuses then insiting is pointless”

“I figured if _you_ came back...I know I’ve asked before but--”

“--NO”

“But, Ben--”

“-- _Don’t_ call me that! I am not coming back, how many times have I told you!?”

They had had that same discussion for over a year, when they kept unwillingly revisiting each other through force-visions.

Kylo had witnessed Rey’s development in her training: she had struggled for what seemed like ages, until Luke finally caved and became her teacher. Under his guidance, her strength had been polished so brightly that Rey had become one of the few pillars that kept the Resistance stable.

_“‘I’ve seen your future as clearly as I see you now” Rey had insisted once, after a grueling duel against Phasma’s command--which had donned the First Order the titanic power they had been missing to wipe out the Resistance. At the great loss of their people, Rey had approached Kylo._

_And what she preached was absolutely true--she had indeed seen him at peace in the nearby future. Her logic told her that he could achieve so by finally coming to mend the broken bonds with his family._

_“There’s still light in you. This might be how we win!”_

_“You cannot make me go back. My future is here, with me. They’re the ones I need to protect, they’re my sole happiness. I will never go back.”_

“Please, Ben-I mean, Kylo. _Please._ There’s not much of us left...your mother, she’s--her _health_...and Luke. I sense...I’ve seen a vision that I don’t even want to speak of. We can’t let it happen. What I know for certain is that we need you. Don’t make me beg.”

“You already are. And it’s not working”

Their gazes remain locked for ages--stern and unrelenting--both parties guarding their own causes.

Rey breaks first, for the sensation of being unwelcome claws at her skin, unlike the feeling of _home_ that she’s found in the Resistance, after many years of solitude.

Kylo was bull-headed, a trait that she can trace back to the little time she spent with Han Solo, the stubbornness she found in Luke upon arriving in Ahch-to and the precision of Leia’s leadership over her band of rebels. Rey tries not to outright display her melancholy over the three heroes that she has grown attached to--though she lets the weakest hint of it reach Kylo, in hopes that he’ll understand how desperate she is for help.

“All right. I’ll leave. But I am warning you. Danger is approaching and not even you will be able to dodge it when it knocks at your door and destroys all that you’ve built for yourself. It’s time you realize that you’re immersed in this, you can’t hide forever.”    

“Let me handle my own problems. There’s a reason why I came here. We’re safe, and that’s the only thing I care about.”

“You’re delusional if you think that they won’t find you. Isn’t Lara’s condition _worsening_?”

Rey strikes a delicate nerve with that. Kylo doesn’t even need to speak for Rey to see how the vein at his forehead seems ready to explode.  

“Just. _Go_. And take that _kriffing_ freighter away from here!”

Rey tries not to let her tears slip, even if her bloodshot eyes and the flush of her cheeks betray her. She _cares_ , she honestly cares about Kylo’s fate. She has spent way too much time near Leia to know for certain that she guards ancient hope for her son. Plus, she’s aware of the forces at work for the detriment of Lara’s life and feels impotent--wishes she was allowed to reach out to their aid.

So she leaves, with a lingering look at the cake, for it has felt like a millennia since she’s had a fulfilling meal.

 _“Whey!”_ Lara shouts in the distance. Hux had been listening in, hiding within the bedroom’s door frame.

Rey barely catches the sight of a chubby infant waving at her--completely oblivious to the chaos all around them. Her heart warmths at the shy mumble delivered right into her mind, _“Aunt”_  

Even if they weren’t related by blood, through what she had gathered from Rey and Kylo’s connection, Lara felt a closeness and liking to her--which could’ve been also influenced by how Rey herself felt adopted by the Skywalkers, somehow.

Rey certainly didn’t have any objection to treating baby Lara as her little niece.

The fond moment is cut short when she’s forcefully ushered outside, with Kylo slamming the door shut right in her face. With a deep breath, Rey wills herself to not be affected by their ill treatment.

She must remain strong. Master Luke will be needing her soon.

 

“Why did she come here!?” Hux demands, as furiously as an old-fashioned housewife out of a holodrama.

“Weren’t you listening!?”

“Well!? Are you going back to your forsaken family or not!?”

“Not now, Hux” Kylo warns.

Lara begins to squirm and cry in Hux’s arms with the rapid decline in the mood--twitchy from the rising tension between her dads.

“Let’s just--talk about it later”, Hux sighs. “It’s her birthday after all…”

“Yeah. Later”, Kylo weakly complies, but no less irritated.  

They both shush her gently, slowly coaxing her to sleep with tender caresses and light kisses to her head as they all lay in bed.

They all fall asleep like that; tangled with Lara in between them, still dressed for they had felt too frail to move--like how the body feels after having cried for hours. Empty, heavy-eyed. The matters at hand unresolved.

 

\---

_Wake up._

It feels like deja-vu. Like the night Lara was born. A familiar voice invoquing him, pulling him from sleep.

Kylo groggily wakes and stares at the ceiling, surrounded in darkness. His eyes drowsily close, for the heat of his family beside him feels so comfortable and homely--perfect to snuggle closer and...

_Wake up._

He jumps involuntarily and feels a revolting feeling coiling up in his stomach, rising up to his chest. Judging by the obscurity, it must’ve been about midnight or somewhere around early morning, though something about the shadows--the blackness enveloping the room--seemed deeper. Dense, even. Suffocating.

He abandons his bed and his feet automatically lead him throughout the house, though he wasn’t conscious of where he was trying to get to. Maybe he had left the lights on at the kitchen?

Precipitation agitates his heartbeats so frantically he can hear them throughout the house like a tribal drumming.

He had walked aimlessly up to their living room when suddenly there’s a loud crash followed by screaming.

Kylo runs back to their bedroom and calls out for his family, but is shocked to see Hux and their baby sleeping peacefully. His yelling hadn’t waken them at all...or at least he thought he had yelled.

 _Am I dreaming?,_ Kylo thinks.  

Loud whirs of lightsabers clashing disrupt his attention--they seem to come from outside their home so he runs again.

Finds nothing.

Panic settles in him but he can’t identify it’s root. It doesn’t feel like his own.

As sharp as a knife, a chill cuts through his bones and he realizes that he was right outside in their gardens with only a thin t-shirt and boxer shorts--remembers that somewhere along the night he had stripped out of his clothes to sleep more comfortably.

The wind flew so vigorously that it seemed to sail with the moans of ghosts in the night. Later, if anyone asks, he’d deny that he was frightened to his very core, justifying his prompt retreat back inside due to the severe cold.

But as he reaches the handle of the backdoor, he freezes as he’s assaulted with an overwhelming feeling of emptiness--as if his lungs were birds set free from their cage, flying outside of his body and leaving him completely hollow.

He closes his eyes and concentrates on the sudden numbness settling inside him.

_He sees white._

_Pure white, as the shot of the vision widens._

_It’s...it’s the ground. A mineral planet, he realizes._

_A vast expanse of white salt covering the planet’s red soil: Crait. He sees First Order ships and Gorilla Walkers tearing down the abandoned Rebel base without mercy, as the remaining Resistance members scramble about looking for an escape._

_Rey is there on the other side. Kylo feels the strain on her mind as if it was his own; feels her muscles tensing in effort, trying to lift the towering piles of rocks that block the exit out of the base._

_Then he sees him: Luke. He faces the army alone, outnumbered. Phasma appears out of her ship, with her chrome armour reflecting the light of the planet’s sun like the deadliest weapon shining through the smoke and scraps of a battlefield. She gives the order and her soldiers tear through Skywalker without a second thought._

_The blaster-bolts--while they penetrate, they fail to kill. How?_

_“Strike me down in anger and I’ll always be with you” Luke calmly speaks, not only to those in front, but to Kylo too. Luke is aware of him seeing._

_No, he seeked him out._

_He called to his nephew specifically._

_“Ben” Kylo hears him, but how!? He’s light-years away, he’s amidst a fight._

_Kylo regards the peaceful demeanor of his uncle; a sweep of his figure reveals something he hadn’t noticed before: his steps on that white land didn’t leave red footprints--the white salt never stirred with Luke’s steps._

_“Ben”_

_One minute he sees his uncle fighting on Crait and then the other he’s gone. With eyes closed, he vanishes._

_Then there’s emptiness. The same kind Kylo had had felt inside his chest._

_But said emptiness wasn’t gloomy--it felt like a peaceful retirement, filled with purpose._

_Luke never left Ahch-to. It was a mere projection._

_Two suns set in the island’s horizon. Kylo had seen that same sunset on Tatooine. He recalls a distant memory: his own father taking him there when he was a toddler, to see for himself the land he heard so much about on the bedtime tales from his uncle; about a surreal, desert planet where unimaginable things happened to lonely, farmer boys._

Kylo is quickly yanked away from his vision as an acute pain spreads through his head. Weakened, he falls to the grass and scrambles around trying to hold on to something, desperate as ominous darkness envelops him once again, and feels anxious at the realization that his uncle had passed on. And he had called to _him_ , on his last hours.

As he slumps trying to ease his breathing, he notices a glimmering light ahead of him.

Slowly, Kylo raises his gaze in fear of what he might see--what that blueish, translucent glow might reveal.

There stood Luke Skywalker: with his soft, brown and cream-colored robes and grey hair, looking down at his nephew with an inscrutable quality to his crystalline blue eyes.

An eternal moment of silence passes between them, each of them inspecting the slight nuances that had changed them over the years; so much time had passed since the night that Kylo Ren rose from within the flames that destroyed Luke’s old jedi school.

“Did you come back to say you forgive me?” Kylo dares that amused smirk off of his uncle’s face, miserably trying to hide the timorous feeling beneath the bite of his words. “To save my soul!?”

“No. That is entirely up to you.”  

“Then why are you here!?”

“As a reminder...”

Kylo is unnerved by his uncle’s tranquility (He always seemed to face adversities clear-headed, which is why it was inevitable for the opposite energies of Luke and Kylo to clash. His soothing tone of voice made Ren feel like a teenager again, when he’d brace himself for his lectures that seemed more tortuous precisely for that eerily calmness, unlike the sharp scoldings he got  from his mother).

 _All of this his had to be a bad dream, it just had to be,_ Kylo keeps repeating to himself. Maybe there had been something on that cake that settled badly on his stomach--hence the heartburn-like pain.

“I failed you, Ben. I’m sorry”

“I’m sure you are!”

Luke shakes his head in disappointment--and beyond that, utter sadness. “Listen, son--”

“--No, _you_ listen! I already told Rey everything you all need to know! The Resistance is doomed, they’ll never win! I won’t go back to die with them. What?--You want me to go fight in your stupid war to imprison me afterwards!? You want me to abandon my--”

 _(Husband_ , he wanted to say, but refrains. Hux wasn’t that, not really. Not yet. But it was the first thing that came to his mind. In reality, that word suited him perfectly. They were more than boyfriends, more than mere partners. Anyway...now was not the time to dwell on that matter.)

“--abandon _Hux,_ my _life_ \--to then sentence him to death while I rot in a cell!? No! Don’t even think about it, I’m finally free from you-- _all_ of you!” Kylo screams the last bits in frustration at seeing Luke’s inmutable stance--ever so serene in contrast to the vortex of a nephew he had.  

“Every word of what you just said is wrong. The rebellion is not, and will never be doomed, while there’s hope. Small and frail, but there is...The war is just beginning, and they have everything they need. Son...there’s even hope within you, no matter how hard you try to deny it. Listen to your heart.”

“The girl. Were you foolish enough to think that we wouldn’t notice? The little one arrived with the strength of a meteorite crashing into a planet.”

Luke smiles as he recalls the moment he felt that certain quake in the Force. He had sensed the very moment the machines started their work on her conception, yes, but her arrival had felt like a radiant vibration in the atmosphere, no matter the ulterior motive behind her birth.

“She’s not safe, son. Stop fooling yourself, Ben. You know what you have to do to save her--don’t even think about us, think about your daughter. You know you must return--”

“--NO! Please, stop this, leave me alone!”  

He couldn’t cry. Oh no, he could not. But it’s difficult, and he loathes himself for his volatile emotions--contained tears stung his eyes as they fought to not spill.

“Ben...you remind me so much of your father. He had the same attitude as you, before he and I got involved in all of this. He only cared about his interest, but...he had such a noble heart, even for his tough exterior. You can’t deny the truth that is your family. Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made in order to save what we love.”

Kylo falls quiet as a single, hot tear finally trails down his cheek; his lips quiver and his eyes sting at the mention of Han Solo, so he doesn’t trust himself to speak just yet.

Meanwhile, Luke can read every micro-expression on his nephew’s soulful eyes--Ben’s face had always been an open book--no wonder he wore a mask as Kylo Ren. Luke stares at him with nothing but compassion for his lost boy.

“Just, know this, before I leave--don’t want you to freeze to death so poorly dressed in this weather, boy.”

Before departing, Luke takes a long moment to study his nephew. He still had the same wild, youthful air about him--a replica of Han. But now he seemed more mature--at peace with some part of himself, yet plagued by the fears of every adult thrown into the void to face the unknown. A gentle soul forced to mature fast to endure adversity--like Leia.

“No one’s ever truly gone. You’d think you’d have any space within you, were you _only_ _Kylo Ren_ , to love your child?”

Kylo’s eyes widen as he feels a stirring in his heart--he remains speechless as Luke’s words flutter inside himself like restless butterflies. Of course Luke was right--it was unnerving how he seemed to be _always_ right. _Kriffing Jedi wisdom._

Bright blue eyes meet brown for a timeless moment, communicating the unspeakable with their gazes--and then Luke disappears.

Kylo remains dazed in his spot for _gods know_ how long, trying to absorb everything he had just experienced in such a small amount of time.

He knew what he had to do, but was unsure that he was strong enough to do it.   

 

\---

Shrilling cries and restless kicks disrupt them from sleep.

Kylo feels as if he had _just_ returned to bed after last night’s affairs--truly, he must’ve gotten at least 30 minutes of rest and it looked just as dark as when he had fallen asleep. But no matter how dog-tired they both were, they stand immediately alert at their daughter’s outburst. Poor Lara’s throat sounded so hoarse from wailing with all the might left on her frail lungs.

“ _Shh,_ my darling, it’s alright, it’s alright” Hux is the first to coo as he reaches a palm to her forehead, just as Kylo places his own to her tummy. “What is it, honey? what is it, my poor girl?”

Both of their hearts sink to the pit of their stomachs at the burning heat radiating from her--she’s completely drenched in sweat, dangerously pale and strongly trembling. “Kylo, she’s boiling with fever! Oh _gods_ ” Hux whimpers as he keeps soothing Lara’s forehead. “Can you get the thermometer!?”

Kylo’s out of bed before Hux even finishes his sentence and is back in no time, quickly unbuttoning Lara’s onesie, rubbing tender circles along her small tummy in an attempt to distract her as he placed the gadget inside her ear. “ _Shhh_ , my girl, it’s okay...it’s okay...” Hux joins in to murmur sweet nothings at the same time, donning light kisses to Lara’s soaked curls as they wait for the dreaded thermometer to beep.

“ _HOLY SHIT!_ She’s above 30 degrees above the temperature!”

“Go grab a cool rag and while I take her clothes off!” Hux orders as he swiftly strips Lara of everything except for her diapers, and his heart shatters as she starts trembling even more violently as he does so.

“ _I know ,_  my baby, _I know,_ but it’s for your own good, we need to bring your temperature down, little one”    

Kylo returns in a matter of seconds; he carefully positions the wet cloth on Lara’s forehead but winces as her discomfort grows--her tiny body convulses in so much agony that it rattles the walls of their bedroom. “I’m sorry, honey, I’m sorry”

They both feel horrible; they know the procedures of treating a fever but they abhor seeing their daughter in such excruciating pain, even when they _know_ that some things are necessary--doesn’t stop them from hating themselves for putting her through it.

They lay there for a while, untucked from the bedsheets, both fathers muttering soft and soothing words, humming made-up tunes to help ease Lara as they wait for the fever to pass. But Lara keeps on crying. She’s wailing uncomfortably and jittering all throughout.

 _“Hold on, baby, hold on”_ Kylo mumbles against the side of her head while blowing puffs of cool air to her forehead.

 _“My darling, just a little bit longer”_ Hux repeats like a prayer, with his nose nuzzling her cheek, unrealistically hoping that even the coldness of it might be of some help.

When they feel no change in her searing flesh, Kylo places the thermometer to her ear once again--Hux whispering endearments to ease her as she twists and recoils from the blasted thing.

“ _Shhh_ , darling, let your dad work. It’s so that you can get better again and eat more cake. You’d like that wouldn’t you? You liked the cake your daddies made you, didn’t you, love? When you get better, the three of us will finish the cake and play all day long--”

“--It hasn’t gone down, _fuck_! what to we do!?

“Fucking hells...I don’t want to give her that medicine we have, that syrup doesn’t look right--wait, the tub! fill the tub with icy water so we can put her in it!”

“Are you sure!? She couldn’t even stand the cold rag, Hux”

“I’m sure, my mother--she did to me, it’s the best we can do. You know what--clog the kitchen sink so we can put her there instead--less trouble.”

(It’s a distant memory, that seems more like a dream now. Hux’s feeble complexion and his father’s general neglect made him prone to lots of illnesses when he was a child--adding Arkanis’ cold and humid atmosphere on top of that.

Little Armitage must’ve been about 3 three years old that one time, when he could not sleep with extremities that felt like icicles yet with a forehead akin to the fires in Mustafar. Helpless, he had sneaked into the kitchens--barely managing to keep his balance.

He’d always felt like a nuisance whenever he voiced a discomfort, but not with his mother. He recalls the guilt that came with waking her from the only time that she could get some sleep. But Haera was selfless, willing to go to the ends of the earth for her son. Due to a lack of medicaments, she turned to what home remedies she knew and placed a faint Armitage in a tub filled with chilling water in order to bring his fever down, all the while peppering sweet kisses to her boy’s head).     

They follow without hesitation and Kylo manages to fill in the kitchen sink while Hux gingerly brings  a squirming Lara down into it.

(A quick, bittersweet feeling passes through them at the notion that she didn’t fit in the sink like she used to--like that very first time they gave her a bath there. She had grown so much--a long-limbed beauty. Sometimes they indulged in imagining who she would take after more, and they had no doubt that she would be quite tall like both of them, but willowy like Hux).

Such thoughts are quickly scraped away at the deafening howls of pain that she emits as she’s submerged into the water, making most of the furniture and appliances levitate and wobble in the air.

“Easy, Lara, easy, my love, it’s just for a little bit” Hux desperately murmurs beside her head as he grabs her by the underarms, while Kylo cradles her lower body.

Kylo’s attention fixes on Hux--who looks so determined to cure their daughter by the power of his endearments alone. Kylo could feel every drop of despair and self-hatred exuding from him in waves--so he closes his eyes and concentrates, praying to the Force for a little mercy on them, projecting supporting energy out to his partner.

After a while, Lara’s cries die down a tad bit--which makes it even clearer for Kylo to hear Hux’s shushed hiccups and intakes of breath. He raises his eyes to him and mourns, for Hux’s lips are puffed in a wet pout and trembling, and there’s a red taint on his cheeks from the straining effort of concealing his tears.

“I think it’s getting better now” Kylo timidly whispers, so to not disturb the silence that had steadily settled between them. A quick sweep of Lara’s force signature showed him that her temperature was finally decreasing.

As their gazes meet, a tear escapes from Hux’s eyes, so Kylo reaches to his cheek to tenderly wipe it away.

“I just...hate this--hate to see her like this. So sick. I don’t--” choked sobs interrupt Hux’s attempts at composure, “I don’t want to lose her.”

“We won’t. I promise you, we won’t.” Kylo dreads voicing what awaits him, specially given how bad Lara had gotten. So he stalls, just for a while, until the right moment...if he told Hux that he had caved into finishing Snoke off along with Rey, Hux would _collapse_. He’d probably send him off gladly if it meant getting rid of Kylo and all the chaos that always danced all around him...

When they make sure that her fever has finally gone down, they take the advantage and give her a quick rinse with shampoo while she’s still in the sink so that she’s fresh and better rested. They gently pat her dry and lay her down (still in her diapers and without any blankets) on the center of the bed--each parent on her sides, whispering sweet nothings and spreading airy-light kisses all over her body until she drifts off.

In a near future, Lara would remember the events of that night like a vivid nightmare. She will distinctly recall her fever induced-hallucinations, as she had been laying nestled between the safety of her father's chests. She would remember a dark figure emerging in front of her--with a disfigured face that resembled a putrid skull--coated in black shadows that stretched and adhered to the walls like gooey ink, closing in on her. Though she will always remember the way _she_ had been faster, more powerful--how some unnamable strength prompted her to call for her fathers before the creature attacked.

\---

They day after Lara’s birthday had been ghastly; spent in the awkward silence of two scared parents who remained alert in case of a worst-case scenario; they had walked on eggshells--silently mourning the leftover balloons and treats they had to put away--too cheerful decorations contrasting against the sorrowful mood.

Lara’s temperature hadn’t gone up like it had at dawn, yet she still hadn’t fully recovered, and even began puking her meals. (It was much to her disdain that they had to feed her soft foods like gelatin and bread for someone with such a sweet tooth. She’d sit on her high-chair throwing tantrums for being spoon-fed with those awful things, squirming away in disgust but then crying due to her tummy ache).

For dinner, when Lara falls asleep at last, Hux and Kylo sit at the foot of their bed eating stale cake--now finding all of its faults thanks to their foul spirits.

“It’s got too much sugar”, Hux bitterly chews at his piece--his expression identical to Lara’s earlier as the stiff desert made his stomach twist. “And it’s gone dry.”

“Pour some caf over it”

Hux just grunts in annoyance, though Kylo knows better than to pick a fight with him right now--specially considering the admission Kylo had yet to make.

“I don’t feel so well, Ren...”

Despite Hux’s irritated display before, the shift in tone feels significant, so Kylo gently caresses a palm to the side of Hux’s head--him leaning in closer to Ren’s warmth instantly. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, not good...like--like my brain is being compressed. Maybe I’ll make myself some tea.”  

“You want me to bring it to you?”

“No, it’s alright. If you’re finished with that I’ll take the plates to the kitchen and then make it”

Standing up from the floor, Hux is overcome with a dizzying sensation that makes his vision get grainy and the tightness in his skull augments; with effort he walks, but as soon as he gets to the kitchen sink he needs to grab onto the counter and breathe or else his prickling legs might fail him. He attributed it to the high-levels of stress he’d been under, but a visceral alert within him signals that something is off, unlike anything he’s ever experienced before. He doesn’t even prepare his tea, for a strong pinching sensation in his chest shortens his breath.

He hastily returns to bed to see Ren draped around Lara and already half-asleep, so he doesn’t bother waking him--simply lays there on his back trying regain composure with breathing exercises (like the military man that he used to be).

He’s in a lucid state when he hears Kylo mumble something beside him--feels like he’s underwater or out in the vast space without oxygen, somewhere in between where his body is trapped and suffocating but his conscious mind is lingering awake. He’s looking up at the ceiling of their room but somehow his eyesight feels different; like he’s seeing in trimmed frames instead of a wide vision--so he’s not able to turn to Kylo to focus on what he says.

 _“I need to tell you something”_  Hux knows it’s Ren-- _he knows_ , but doesn’t comprehend what he means, only registers the undertone of urgency beneath his tired voice.

 _“Tell me later”_ He manages to respond in auto-pilot, sensing a jumpiness to his eyes before they deviate backwards against his will and blackness surrounds him.

\---

The next morning, Hux wakes up entirely hammered--overwhelmed by a swelling sensation all over his brain. Like an amplified hangover.

As he slowly regains consciousness--his hearing sense returning in delayed intervals--he drowsily notices Ren calming Lara down from an outburst before he leaves somewhere and returns with a wet rag, placing it to the baby’s head.

“W-what’s happened?” He’s weary and doesn’t even react to seeing worry etched all over Ren’s face among Lara’s shrieks between them.

“Hux, you’re--Lara’s feverish again, it’s not that high like last night. You’re not well.” The last bit is a statement rather than a question; not only is it painfully clear in his dilated pupils but in his aura. Kylo perceives something uncanny in it but cannot identify exactly what Hux might be under.

“I’m alright...is Lara okay?”

“She’s fine, it’s not as drastic as before. Hux, what is it?”

“Nothing, I’m fine... _breakfast_.” He tries to rise up but his palms slide on the mattress, preventing him from sitting upright.

“You stay there, I’ll get the breakfast”

“No, I’m telling you it’s fine, I’m getting up!”

Hux, even drowned by sickness, manages to remain the most stubborn man Kylo had ever come across.

By sheer will, Hux stands up and makes his way to the kitchen, with Kylo following behind with Lara in arms. He fails to make Hux acquiesce into him making breakfast--with Hux insisting that Ren supervises Lara instead.

“Last night...you said something to me last night? There was something important, wasn’t there?” Hux has his back to Kylo while he weakly slices up fruit at the kitchen counter--in a matter that felt more automated than sentient.

“Yes, actually. It is rather important but it can wait after breakfast”

Kylo is acutely aware of a short-circuiting in Hux’s energy--hence the lack of a spoken reply.

“Hux?”

He’s not facing him--can only see the repetitive motion of his arm holding a knife that meets the hard tablet where they cut their foods. _Thud thud thud_ _thud thud, again and again and again._

“Hux?” Kylo settles a fidgety Lara into her high-chair to reach Hux. _“Darling”_

Meanwhile, Hux’s vision shortens again--like a close up of his hand moving the knife up and down repeatedly, even when there isn’t any fruit left to chop. Everything else in his surroundings, pitch black.

“HUX!”

_It’s Ren, he’s screaming, why is he screaming? he’s worried, he’s coming for me, he’s catching me, I’m falling._

It all feels like a dream even when it’s happening right in the moment.

The last thing Hux registers are Ren’s hands all over his face and him crying out his name.

And then he faints.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: There are several graphic descriptions of illnesses, specially epilepsy. Some of its descriptions are actually based on my mom's personal experiences with her fainting episodes--how she feels the moments before passing out.  
> Also, the 'character death' warning is for a reference of Luke Skywalker dying in TLJ. But..quoting him, "No one's ever truly gone..."  
> On a lighter note, Happy New Year! I began 2018 writing Moonbroch and I can't believe I'm actually continuing it. It's the first time I've ever hold on to a story of mine for so long. While it may not have a lot of views, if I know there's at least a few of you out there who read this, means the universe to me. This project is my baby and I cannot wait to see it finished, and see where these characters take me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was getting too long so I decided to split it and add an aditional chapter to the story! We're almost at the end, angst and action ahead.

Hux strenuously wakes, battling the unbearable pounding in his skull that made his eyes ache as if someone was trying to pull them right out its sockets. The first thing he registers is the empty spot beside him on the bed where Ren is supposed to be, reaching for it instinctively--notes that it’s still warm, still smells faintly of Ren’s unique musk.   

 _“What happened to me?”,_ it’s the only coherent thought that dances around his mind.

He recalls in vivid detail the distress in Ren’s hoarse cries as he caught him before he fell. He remembers how, even unconscious, his mind somehow filtered Ren’s voice urgently pleading for him to wake up--like placing an ear atop a paved street, with sound reverberating against it and meshing with the ground’s own white noise.

“R-Ren...” Hux weakly croakes out, nowhere near loud enough for Ren to hear him, _if_ he’s even home. “Ren...”

He laboriously pulls himself up in a sitting position, cradling his throbbing head in his palms while groaning in pain.

An ear splitting shriek attacks his sensitive hearing and only minutes later does he realize that it’s his daughter’s cries.

 _“Ren?”_ He tries again and is soon met with the sight of his agitated partner trying to calm Lara all by himself as he rocks and shushes her.

“Hux! Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

“Like shit...what happened to me? Is Lara okay?”

“She’s fine, she just didn’t want to eat and I had to force her to, but she’s way better today.”

“ _Hux_ \--Hux I don’t know...you--you fainted. But it was like...like you had a seizure or something. I could even feel the glitch in your force-signature, luckily I caught you in time. I...I had to hold you so that you wouldn’t bite your tongue or choke on your spit because you kept convulsing. Has that ever happened to you before?”

“Not at all” Hux takes a deep breath to steady his rising embarrassment--couldn’t imagine how that scene must’ve looked to Ren, (although he looks at him with those gorgeous brown eyes, wide with nothing but sympathy and care) and most importantly couldn’t deal with having had lost control over his own body like that.

At seeing the Hux’s train of thought he trembles with nervousness at having to leave them both in their state. Yet it was something that _had_ to be done or else he might as well sentence his family by neglecting his impending calling.   

“Hux, I...I’ll go to town real quick and see if I can get you anything. I’ll go consult with a doctor--the closest nearby, and I’ll get you something. I’ll be back in no time!”

He places Lara into the bed beside Hux and rushes to tie up his boots--not even bothering to change out of his black loungewear.

“No, wait! _Ren..._ ”

“I’ll be back in no time, seriously” He scoots down and places a firm kiss to Hux’s head, who’s quick enough to grab Kylo’s hand before he flees.

“Wait! _Don’t go_.”

“I’ll be so quick, Hux. I need you to get better” he murmured sweetly against Hux’s forehead.

“Don’t go, _please_ , I don’t feel well.” Hux tightens his hold on Kylo’s hand as if his life depended on it. And maybe it did.

There’s an awakening...dim yet present in Hux’s veins in the shape of a bad premonition, in the way his heart pumps with adrenaline--his body feels as if it were gearing up to run a marathon race. Ren had always mocked his nule force-sensitivity and even Hux couldn’t grasp just _how_ possessing such an ability would feel, but maybe _this_ would be the closest thing.

“Didn’t you have something to tell me?”

“I’ll tell you when I get back” With another peck to his lover’s temple, he hurries off before Hux can even argue, quickly retrieving his lightsaber from beneath the bed as he had sensed the anguish storming in Hux’s head.

Just in case, he figured.

 _“Don’t go...”_ Hux whispers defeatedly to himself as he watches Kylo run. He hopes he’ll be returned to his arms soon like he promised, but now the emptiness seems louder all around him without Ren.

“My darling, why didn’t you want to eat?” He turns to Lara who grumpily stares at him--still mad for her bland diet. He coos as he lies down again to cuddle her--plants his nose against the crown of her head while tenderly making shushing noises to calm themselves.  

With her papa’s gentle doting, she falls asleep. The steady rising and falling of her tiny chest and the flowery aroma of her dark curls soothed him so--on the verge of sleep, but never managed to completely drift off. So he tucks the blankets tighter around Lara and aims to prepare himself some breakfast.

He toasts some bread but can barely tolerate a single bite, instantly nauseated.

Maybe just tea, then.

He slumps against the kitchen counter, waiting for the water to boil but begins feeling light-headed, so he quickly returns back to bed before passing out on the floor again--to hells with his damned tea.

He lies with Lara for an indefinite amount of time--feels like years accumulating into centuries. Felt like a whole lifetime had passed before Lara squirms restlessly upon waking.

Thank his military training, enabling him to gather all the few last threads of his remaining strength to get up and tend to her. The whole time that they both sat the kitchen table Hux remained green with nausea, retching every time he caught a whiff of Lara’s mashed food. _“No wonder she gets pissed whenever she eats this.”_

He scoops one more spoonful but the stench gets insufferable--throws away the spoon and runs to the bathroom to vomit.

Yet nothing comes out.

His throat aches as he dry-heaves, collapsed against the toilet. What hurt most was the sound of Lara’s cries all over the house, drilling his pounding head--cries for fear at seeing his papa’s sudden outburst, leaving her all alone.

His joints ache as he struggles to get up, takes the advantage of filing their tub with hot water while he’s in the bathroom, before limping all the way back to his suffering daughter in what felt like an exhausting trek akin hiking the snowy mountains of Alderaan.

“I’m here my darling, I’m here, I’m sorry” He murmurs against Lara’s temple as he carries her to the bathtub.  

 _“Papa!”_ she hiccups and  tightly clings to his neck as if her father might evaporate in the air.  

“I’m sorry my darling, everything is fine. Your papa is just feeling a bit under the weather, nothing serious”, but Lara can sense Hux’s lies; she feels the strain on Hux’s body as if it were her own and doesn’t ever want to part from him, adhering to him with a vice-like hold. “Now, let me undress you so that we can both take a bath. Wouldn’t you like that, hmm? Wouldn’t that feel good, little one?”    

Hux struggles against Lara’s iron grip around his neck but when he finally succeeds he strips them both and carefully sinks down on the pleasing water with a relieved sigh, though Lara keeps crying and rambling incoherently; out of her litany of words, Hux could only make out the words, _“Papa!” “When-daddy-come-back!”_ and _“bad!”_ , the latter murmured with intent.     

At her age she had gotten quite talkative but still they had to guess what she meant and repeat it to her articulately in order for her to learn the correct pronunciations. In Hux’s dazed state of mind however, he could not figure out what on earth could she mean by mumbling _“woopers”..._

“It’s alright, Lara, your daddy will be back soon, he’s just out to get papa some medicine. It’s alright...” With long, comforting strokes to her back she finally eases a bit--though still clinging to Hux’s chest as if it were her own personal armour.    

More time passed with eerie quietness filling the bathroom, feeling like a liminal space, where time stretched on eternally--detaching from reality to soar in its own dimension.

Ren hadn’t come back.

All the silence surrounding them starts to feel constricting, so father and child relocate to lie on their bed once the water had cooled.

_“How long had it been since he left?”_

_“Could’ve been hours now.”_

The sun had started to set.

They doze, on and off in intervals.

Nothing.    

\---

Hux had just begun settling deep into the toasty warmth of their blankets when Lara yanks his sleep away with a start.

 _“Papa!”_ her cries are guttural and panicked--eyes striking with terror.

“Darling!? what is it!?”

Lara is so frightened she can’t even formulate anything to alert her father, and amidst Lara’s wails there’s the thundering racketing of the motor engines of a spaceship--such mighty sounds could only belong to the crafts of those who had been his people _once_ , getting louder and louder as they approach the precinct of their home.  

_Troopers._

The house’s walls seem to pulse in time with his own heartbeat--either by the power of Lara’s lungs or the potency of the machines--but Hux’s adrenaline kicks in and he’s moving about the room like a maelstrom.

He gathers Lara, wrapped in a blanket and hides her in a corner of the unused nursery room. _“Stay right here!”_ his eyes are stern, urging her to hush her whimpering before locking the door and going back to their own room to retrieve his blaster from under the bed.

Cautiously he peers from the bedroom door; he can clearly see the outside since the curtains had been left open and he curses their carelessness (though who could’ve known?).

Two grand shuttles harshly land in the front patio from which rows of armed stormtroopers descend, instantly aiming at the house.

Hux is quick to fire at the first row with an excellent aim, knocking most of the troopers down--but igniting the fight in the rest who advance faster, barging in and tearing through the home; the blaster bolts destroying every little trinket and detail of their family life without mercy--crumbling in pieces in the blink of an eye.

_“SEARCH THE HOUSE!”_

_Shit._ Hux shudders at the sound of the blaster fire piercing through the walls and his mind can only focus on _Lara_. Get Lara to safety before _they_ get her.

He speeds out of his hiding place behind the door, shooting blind-eyed at the direction of the invasion, crouching down to the floor to avoid the answering shots successfully. Stormtroopers really did have the worst aim possibly.

He’s rushing to the nursery when he hears, _“STUN HIM! General Phasma wants them ALL alive!”_

He can’t even think of the probabilities of the troopers getting him with the change of configuration in their weapons, he only accelerates his crawling while sweating profusely for he hears the _swishing_ sounds of the blasts barely grazing his left ear, then another two to his right, getting closer and closer. He dodges them all but they’re so close, he might not make it.

In a quick flash he turns to assess when he sees the mouth of a weapon aimed right at him from a distance. He raises his own but it’s too late, the trooper fires.

Time stops.

Everything stands frozen--the missile remains disperse in the air as a resounding shriek pierces through the house, strong lungs screaming, _NO!”_ deafening and electric in the air like lightning.

As in slow-motion, Hux turns around to see his daughter supporting herself by the door frame--one tiny hand extended out as she wails out a command in tears. Stubborn like her father, she could not have remained still while conscious of the perill that Hux was in. She wasn’t even aware of her powers, she was but a child with an impulse to protect her papa,  desperate to see him live.

Astounded, he regards her when the characteristic buzzing of a lightsaber whirling disrupts him from his trance, and everything that had stood still in the air comes crashing down at once--Hux lunges for Lara, sheltering her with his body as he veered to the opposite side to where the floating blaster bolt had discharged and exploded into flames.

Ren savagely tears through the rest of the soldiery--swift, red light slashing around angrily until there are no survivors left.

“REN! WHERE THE HELLS HAVE YOU BEEN!?”

“Come with me, there’s no time! We have to get out of here!”

In a quick string of events, they flee from Naboo. For once, Hux doesn’t nag to Ren’s orders. With Lara in arms he briskly follows him, taking one last, lingering glance at their demolished home. All traces of the life they had lovingly built with so much effort, _gone_.

Luckily there had only been two First Order shuttles and Ren had slain both squads including their respective pilots successfully--ships shattered and left in smoke in a tumultuous heap in their gardens.

They rush to the parked freighter they had acquired back in Vermillion and Ren is engaging lightspeed before they can even settle inside; the violent quivering of their ship accentuates the nausea welling up in Hux’s throat but still he keeps his composure while balancing a crying Lara in arms.

“WHAT IS GOING ON!?”

Kylo ignores him, focusing on getting them as far away from the Nabooian moons and any other First Order ship that might be patrolling nearby to catch up with a certain rusty freighter that had been flying over, waiting for his call.

“REN!”

Once Kylo’s in a safe perimeter and the _Falcon_ shows up close in his radar, he rises from the pilot chair in a hurry to face Hux, firmly grabbing him by the shoulders.

“Listen. Please, for once in your life, listen to what I have to tell you. It’s Snoke and you know it, it always has been. Lara’s sickness and now you. It’s all a game to him and I can’t let him win. I’ve been wanting to tell you that I had made up my mind. I’m going off now to finish him off with Rey, for once and for all. It’s the only way we’ll ever be free--”

“ _What!_ what do you mean going off now!? What is going on, are you leaving us!?”

“It was just a matter of time, those troopers--They were sent by Phasma under Snoke’s orders, they knew we were still alive, Snoke has just been baiting us the entire time. They raided the whole city, that’s why I took so long in coming back. And now I must go--”

“-- _What,_ so you’ll just abandon us like that!? what am I supposed to do, wait for you like some damsel in distress!?”

“Take the ship, take Lara away from here, to the safest place you can think of. I’ll find you”

“I can barely pilot a cargo shuttle--”

“-- _Yes_ you can. You were the one that rescued me from Starkiller. _You_ did dat.”

“They’ll find us”

“No they won’t. The Resistance is close, they’ll keep away any enemy ships that might get in your way.”

“ _The Resistance is close!?_ How can you be so calm! If they find me, they’ll take Lara away and send me straight to the gallows!”

“They won’t. _Trust me_ , Hux. You have to do everything you can to get you both to safety. I’ll finally murder that fucking _rat_ so we can be free--”

A ringing beeping cuts Ren’s speech off and as he turns, a red blinking dot in the navigation system indicates that Rey was currently holding off for him, making contact. He scurries away from Hux, sends out a signal to Rey and moves to the back to where the escape pods are.

Hux sees Ren’s frantic pacing around the ship as one fluid motion in his dizzy state. He can’t quite process what’s going on--can’t seem to digest the fact that Ren is about to leave him alone with their baby, alone within the vast blackness of the galaxy where danger lurks in the most unexpected places. He fears that this might be where it all ends and shivers at the mental image of Ren, cold and lifeless on the throne room of the _Supremacy_ beneath Snoke’s feet; at visions of Resistance fighters or worse--stormtroopers--intercepting his ship and taking Lara away from him; of himself, moments before the beheading...

Before he knows it, there’s a warm palm caressing his cheek and even warmer, softer lips kissing him fiercely--with the passion of two lovers who might be parting forever. Kylo then kisses Lara’s head, commiting her scent to memory for he knows not if it will be the last time he’ll ever see her.

At her father’s touch, _knowing_ \--somehow--what is about to go down, she panics and struggles within Hux’s arms to touch him--reach for his nose as she’s always done,“ _No, daddy, no!_ ”

“I love you, Lara. Soon you’ll be free of all your pain, my sweet girl.”

Hux can’t even protest when Kylo’s already disappeared in the kriffing escape pod.

He stands still for a moment, muting out all sound as his mind works beyond the fatigue to formulate a plan, calculating logistics and probabilities. He couldn’t possibly let Ren face off the bastard alone. They had always been a team. Once upon a lazy morning, drunk in a post-orgasmic haze they had talked about being _Emperors_. Of how sweet it would taste to finally be rid of the thorn on their side. While their ambitions had changed because of Lara, the gist remained the same.

It’s as if he was able to move his numb limbs thanks to a phantom string--indicating him which buttons to press, _who_ to call.

Despite his ambivalence, he picks up the comm-link.

_“This is former General Armitage Hux, fugitive of the First Order, requesting contact with General Leia Organa of the Resistance.”_

 

_\---_

 

“Take this” Once inside the Falcon, Rey hands Kylo a tunic--similar to the one he used to wear back in Luke’s academy, only this one was all black. “To blend in”, she snorts at the indignant look on Kylo’s face.

“What’s _this?”_

“Robes! Now you look the part. Can’t have you walking about The Supremacy in your pajamas”

“They’re not-- _ugh. Fine._ But you do know that I’m supposed to be dead? Even if I wear this shit, they’ll still want to kill me. I’m a traitor now, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, just stop whining and put them on!”

Once in full get-up, he looks as if both of his past selves converged into a new man: not Ben, certainly not Kylo anymore, but the better parts of each; he stands, ready to be reborn, all in black clothing that resembled a Jedi’s, his crossguard lightsaber clipped at the hip and the scar that bisected his face standing out against the Falcon’s fluorescent lighting. “Okay, so what’s the brilliant plan then?”

“Well the Falcon is quite hard to miss and it’ll be appearing on their radar soon. Normally they’ll reel in the vehicle for inspection, and that’s how we get in. It sounds too obvious but it will get us in without making a fuss--at least, we’ll make it ourselves anyway, once inside. Plus, that’s what we want in the end, isn’t it? To  _get in._ ”  

“They’ll put is in chains in an _instant._ ”

“No, they won’t. I know they won’t. I have you, don’t I? Just trust me. We get in and we take the chances we get until we reach our target. Bottom line, we _want_ to get to Snoke directly. If there’s still some of that _Kylo Ren_ in you, it’ll be a piece of cake”    

“You have a lot to learn, kid”

They both still--Rey having sworn that she heard Han Solo talking instead of Kylo, who’s just as surprised. It had slipped out so easily.

If Han was there with him in spirit, then Kylo could understand why Rey seemed overall confident. His father would’ve complained and bickered for the flaws in the plan but would’ve carried out anyway--that foolhardy pirate--would’ve figured out the scheme as he went along and come out a victor.

Kylo sends a silent prayer to _him--_ a shamed plea for forgiveness. If only he was here with them, piloting the Falcon and waiting by the pilot’s seat for their call...

The Falcon trembles and the alarm bells go off, signaling that the ship is being suctioned off to the Cruiser’s hangar bay.

“I guess we’re in.”

They share a look of mischievous complicity and urge to fight. To win. They pray for strength to their heroes, to their cherished trio: to Han, to Luke and even Leia--who remained ready and pending for their signal at her own ship.

_To Hux, to Lara..._

For their family, they would succeed or die trying. They take a big gulp of breath once the doors of the Falcon are forced open by stormtroopers--who quickly stump back against the walls as Kylo’s quick to force-choke them all.

 

\---

 

Hux fretts the second a formation of X-Wings start dropping from atmo to round up his freighter.

_“Hang in there, Hugs, we got it from here.”_

It’s the electronic voice of that son of a bitch, Dameron, speaking over the comm.

The fleet escorts him until they land in a remote outpost among the Kares moons that seemed to serve the Resistance as a spot to refuel, restock provisions and exchange information. It looked like an abandoned and rusty warehouse--far too archaic to be standing still and functional in their day and age.

His tachycardia acts up again as he waits inside the parked ship. He daren’t move from the pilot’s seat in fear that even moving a finger might trigger Resistance fire. Amidst his anxiety, he notes that while a bit squirmy, Lara remains oddly serene in his embrace.  

The decompressing sounds of the freighter’s doors straddle him and he immediately stands--adopting his old military poise, ready to act out against a threat (despite the fact that he still had his baby in arms).

The cocky pilot that he recognizes as Poe Dameron enters first, aiming a gun at him in his overconfident and boastful way before his gaze widens comically when he sees Lara.

“Hux. If you try anything, I won’t hesitate to shoot you myself.” While venom pours from Poe’s tone it’s quite unsure after seeing Hux guarding a kriffing _child._ Hux picks up on that and smirks, scoffing at Poe’s empty threats.

“Of course.”

“That’s alright, Poe. I got this. Please, wait for me outside.” It’s the calm voice Hux once loathed so much--the one he wanted to crush along with all her stinking rebels, the one that used to make his ears bleed when he heard her in New Republic propaganda.

“General Hux. Or is it just Armitage now?”

Poe snorts before disappearing and making way for Leia to step in. There she stands in all her imposing grace. Worn down by the everlasting war that has plagued her life since she was a child yet still carrying herself with her royal elegance. Even with all the hatred he once nurtured for her, he cannot deny the power she exudes, nor the fact that his own daughter is named, in part, after her.

“Ah. General Organa. I come with diplomatic intentions.”

“So I see. Is that code for ‘finally brought your granddaughter for you to meet her’?”.

Hux tenses and Lara quirks up--as always (when meeting new people-- _familiars_ ) regarding Leia with curious eyes. She waves a timid hand and Leia scoots closer to greet her but Hux recoils with apprehension.

“How did you know?”

“Well if the hair and ears hadn’t given it away...How couldn’t I have known? Her presence in the Force is as clear to me as water. Rey has simply confirmed what I saw in dreams.”

Hux rolls his eyes and curses the damned scavenger, of course she could not have kept her mouth _shut._

“So let’s talk” Leia continues; her eyes keep landing on Lara’s figure; already filled with fondness at meeting her granddaughter in person for the first time, even if she had to hide her excitement in Hux’s presence.

“I’m positive you know that your _son_ and that scavenger are off to the Supremacy on their own with their idiotic plan of murdering the Supreme Leader as we speak. You were always on our tail back when I was in charge so where are you know!? Why aren’t your precious rebels there backing them up now!?”

“You think I’d let them go alone? We’re keeping close contact. We do not mean to cause a riot that might compromise them before they can even infiltrate the base. I’m not as heartless as you think I am. And neither are you. So what do you really want?”

He feels Lara’s weight on his arms, her softness. He thinks of her other dad...of Ren. Of the sacrifice he’s making for their sake. In his mind he sees the nightmares that haunted him before her birth--of a vicious, green-eyed woman seeking revenge on her parents for an event that hadn’t yet happened...

“I...I can’t let Ren march into the slaughter alone. I can’t. I thought to come here offering a truce but I realize how inappropriate that is, given the gravity of my past crimes. So I surrender... _I do_. Let me go with them and die if that means _they’ll live_. All I ask is that you keep my daughter safe. Your _granddaughter.”_

_“Please…”_

His speech exhausts him and he remembers how ill he had been just hours ago. His visions blurs a tad bit and his legs are in pinpricks, ready to quit on him any minute now.

“You’re not well.”

“Do we have a deal?” Hux slurs the last words and instinctively hands his baby to Leia. He barely hears the sounds of her ordering Poe to get a medic and a cot before he’s falling again.

 

\---

 

_“LORD REN!?”_

_“It’s Lord Ren, alert General Phasma!”_

The whiney distress alarms of the Supremacy ring off throughout their ship like a soundtrack, as Kylo and Rey slaughter all the troopers that come in their way--some pierced by the red and blue blades of their weapons, others thrown or twisted or choked by their force-hold.

They’re advancing quickly through the halls--way easily than they had prevented--dodging from the blaster bolts that shower them from all angles, both of them quick enough to stop them mid-air or redirecting them so that they crash against other troopers within the mass of soldiery that had sprung out to fight them.

They round a corner to a stretch hallway; a string of troopers had been following them but they were able to stun them all into oblivion--Kylo raising them all up with the Force and throwing them to collide against the durasteel walls with fiery sparks igniting from the impact.

The coast is clear as they run, straight into the clear path they see in their minds leading to the Throne Room, when a flash of Chrome stops them dead in it their tracks.

“Lord Ren. Come back from the grave,” Phasma’s robotic voice through the vocoder of her helmet feels like a bucket of icy water thrown at them, although they had expected her anytime now. She’s flanked by two stormtroopers bearing red durasteel shoulder pads on each of her side.

“Phasma. I hear you’ve been promoted”

“No need for chit-chat, _Ren._ ”, she spits out in disgust. “This is exactly how I wanted to find you. Take them to the Supreme Leader!”

The two troopers are quick to roughly grab and handcuff them.

“And that’s just where we were headed, thank you, _General_ ” Kylo retorts in Phasma’s direction as they’re being pushed away, further into the hallway.

When they’re out of Phasma’s sight, she reaches for her belt to retrieve a minuscule comm-link.

“They’re here. What’s taking you so long!?”

_“Organa’s still with them. Don’t worry, I got this.”_

“Be _quick.”_

\---

When he blinks awake he’s blinded by white light; such _high-key_ illumination, common in holofilms when one has finally reached the afterlife. After his symptoms, Hux truly believes in that moment that he’s finally passed on, until he hears the curious blabbering of a girl that sounds exactly like his daughter.

“L-Lah...” His tongue feels numb and heavy inside his mouth--must’ve bitten it when he fell. “Lara... _Lara!_ ”

“ _Shhh…_ ” There’s a tender, calloused palm rubbing his naked calf. “Relax, Hux. Lara is here with me. How do you feel?”

_“Why is Leia Organa’s voice so soothing? Am I really dead?”_

“You’re not dead. You’re in the medbay of our ship. No one is here but me, you’re safe. I know you wouldn’t want anyone else guarding this room.”

He blinks until his vision finally clears. Yes, he’s in a medical wing, hence the bright lighting; he’s in nothing but a white, cotton gown and sitting on a corner of his cot there’s Organa gingerly cradling Lara, who bounces desperately in Leia’s hold as soon as she sees that Hux is awake “ _Papa’s back!”_

Hux’s heart shatters when he notices Lara’s tear-stained cheeks and red-rimmed eyes.

“Yes, you’re sleepy papa is awake now. See? you had nothing to worry about, sweetheart, I told you the medicine would make him feel better.”

“What’s going on?”

“Our doctor ran some tests on you, looks like you’ve been having epileptic episodes. Is this something new, Hux? or did the stress trigger your condition?”

“Epilepsy? No, I...It’s never happened to me before. Ren, he...he mentioned...Lara had been getting sick, gravely so. And after a while, I did too. Ren says that it’s Snoke who’s behind this, like some sort of morbid bait to lure him in. I think he screwed up Lara’s health torture _us_ , and _now_ he’s making me ill so that I don’t go to Ren. He knows, that monster’s always known...”  

“Not to worry,” Leia shows him a circular device with a flickering blue light--the same one that Rey had on herself at all times so to never lose contact. “I know exactly where they are and they’re fine. Our pilots are standing by, ready for when the time comes.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Leia inhales--unsure of the answer herself. But then she looks down and sees a black-haired child; with wild curls, expressive eyes and freckled skin. She sees someone she thought she’d lost a long time ago.

“I--”

Leia’s answer is cut off by the simultaneous sound of the ship’s distress alarm’s and the loud beeping of the tracking device.

_They’re in trouble._

As if called telepathically, a nurse appears just as Leia was gearing up to head outside.

“Nurse, take care of the child and make sure no one enters this room--”

“--What’s happening!?” Hux panics as he hears and _senses_ all the commotion outside the room.

“Hux, you stay here, we’ll take care of everything.”

“Wait, no! I must go--”

“-- _No_. You must _rest_. You’re in no condition of going anywhere. Nurse Hylia here will guard the child”

Hux hadn’t even glimpsed at said nurse but he could not stand for being alone with _Resistance_ _scum_ (although by now it wouldn’t serve him well to think of them with such contempt; they hadn’t arrest him yet and Organa had been unusually supportive.)

 _“SLEEP”,_ Leia intones with her tiny flair for force-persuasion, for now was not the time for discussions, specially with Hux. At her command, the ex-general falls limply back on his cot in a light sleep.

And light it was.

Though his eyes are closed, somehow he’s aware of the events unfolding before him. He’s stunned as to how he’s able to pinpoint the moment that Leia leaves the room. And beyond that, something else...Something’s not right.

Lara...she’s being carried around in the room but the nurse feels eager, impatient. Like she’s _stalling_.

Hux is desperate to speak but can only emit moans.

_Lara!_

After an interminable moment he’s able to brush the sleep away and his unfocused gaze falls on the brown, lavender and white blobs that must be the nurse’s figure.

It’s a familiar sight-- _that woman_ \--he’s seen her before...he closes his eyes shut to clear up his vision and there’s a distinct memory flooding up his mind.

_A medical laboratory with a big tank on its center. A brown-skinned nurse with purple hair, with an air of condescension as he spoke to Hux about the baby._

_““It passed the--”_

_“SHE"_

_“Excuse me, General?_

_“She. She's a girl, not an object.”_

_“Of course, General. I apologize, General.”_

He opens his eyes in a flash. _Nurse Nicks_ \--the one that had assisted Dr. Vigil with Lara’s conception.

He turns just in time to see her fleeing the room and by some supernatural force he jumps out of bed and runs, but the nurse is quicker and before he can even catch up she’s already disappeared into an exit route that must’ve lead to the escape pods.

Lara’s distant, pained wails are imprinted in his mind as he races to the opposite direction.

_“ORGANA!”_

Tons of Resistance officers are at his sides--tugging him back and attempting to restrain him--he brushes them off and runs as fast as he can, past the acute soreness in his legs, until he reaches the command room where Leia stands amidst her crew of intelligence.

“Hux, what--”

“The nurse! she was undercover, she’s Snoke’s! she’s left with Lara, I need to move NOW!”

“ _Hux--”_

“-- _Trust me.”_

There’s uproar all around Leia, " _What’s he doing here!? "_

_"The traitor, the Starkiller!"_

_"General Organa, what’s the meaning of this!”_

But Hux regards her with pleading eyes and she recognizes the look immediately. Sees herself in him for an evanescent moment--the despair in the eyes of a parent whose world disintegrates without their children--and makes a decision.

An certain understandment is exchanged between their minds. A truce.

And then Hux leaves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had been dreading to write the action sequences for so long. Hope I did them justice.  
> Also, I don't know how long it'll take me to finish the story. There's only two more chapters besides this one, but I'm a terribly slow writer, and I've been preparing myself to make my 4 month trip to Canada in two weeks. I hope to finish this before I leave, since I'm not sure if I'll have any time to write when I'm there.


End file.
